Stocks fell yesterday, led by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and some exporters after a US manufacturing report showed a contraction this month amid the war with Iraq.
"The report was quite bad and that will reduce investor interest to buy stocks," said Belinda Yu, who manages the equivalent of US$216 million of stocks at Jih Sun Securities Investment Trust Co (日盛投信).
The TAIEX fell 26.05, or 0.6 percent, to close at 4,311.56.
MSCI Taiwan futures for April delivery in Singapore rose 0.2 percent to 183.60. The Taiwan Futures Index slid 0.1 percent to 4,295.
For every stock that rose, three stocks fell. The value of trade was NT$31 billion.
Quanta Computer slid NT$1, or 1.6 percent, to NT$62.50.
Fubon Financial Holding Co (
Elitegroup Computer Systems Co (
It said Lin Cheng-tai quit his post on the company's board of directors. Lin, who's still the company's president and is in charge of the Apple Computer Inc's iBook order at Elitegroup, plans to lead his research and development team to join Elitegroup's bigger rival, Asustek Computer Inc (
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) fell NT$0.20, or 0.5 percent, to NT$38.10. Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽), the country's biggest life insurer and a unit of Cathay Financial, plans to shift NT$168 billion (US$4.8 billion) of cash assets abroad as domestic interest rates fall to record lows, cutting profit from investments.
Eva Airways Corp (
Medtecs International Ltd (
"Everyone will be more careful about their health at this point in time, so companies that produce medical-related goods will benefit," Yu said.
The company began selling shares domestically on Dec. 13.
Via Technologies Inc (
The company said March sales fell 19 percent to NT$1.9 billion from a year earlier.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by